Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What is this new Home Performance Industry and what exactly is a Home Performance Assessment?

Answer: The Home Performance Industry is made up of contracting professionals, product manufacturers and regulatory agencies focused on lowering home energy usage, improving Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and improving the environmental comfort of homes for homeowners.  A Home Performance Assessment is often the first step in a diagnostic analysis of a home to determine if it could benefit from the services of a Home Performance Contractor.  Many regulatory agencies that administer rebate, grant and tax incentive programs require a Home Performance Assessment as a baseline for a home to qualify for any incentives offered for increasing the energy efficiency and safety of the home. At Residential Energy Pros our home performance professionals have training and certifications through the nationally recognized Building Performance Institute (BPI) to administer Home Performance Assessments to national standards that meet the federal, state and local regulatory guide lines to qualify for the various rebates, tax incentives and grants that are offered from time to time. During the assessment we perform extensive diagnostic testing utilizing state of the art equipment in the evaluation of our client’s homes.  We do charge for this service, but the cost of producing this detailed diagnostic report of your home’s overall energy efficiency and air quality environment is rebated back to the homeowner should they decide to go ahead and make the necessary investments in your home to improve their comfort, energy consumption and or air quality. Additionally from time to time various state, local or federal regulatory agencies also offer reimbursement for these diagnostic assessments based on certain criteria as well.     

Question: How much do the services & improvements you perform cost?

Answer: The amount varies greatly as it is dependent on many factors such as size, condition, age and other factors that make each home unique. It also depends a great deal on you, the homeowner.  Some clients desire only the top essentials be addressed while others see the benefit of doing everything at once.  Others do some of the work this year then do the rest of the work the next year as their finances allow. What is universal is that just about everyone we meet with acknowledges the huge economic benefit from the current utility rebates and tax credits being offered and wants to know how to qualify to begin saving money.  The average home owner’s net expense after rebates and tax credits typically ranges from $500.00 to $15,000.00. After experiencing the benefits of their initial home performance improvements some of our customers move beyond the basics and make a substantial investment to produce their own electrical power on their property and selling their excess electricity back to their utility company.    

Question: Please describe your typical customer and what you think you can do for them

Answer: Our typical customer is a homeowner who is interested in exploring what they can do to improve the quality of their life in regards to the environment in their home. People that have asked us to help them in the past typically have had one or more of following issues or situations-

• Comfort issues.  Things such as hot, cold, drafty or otherwise uncomfortable conditions somewhere within their home
• They thought they might have an issue tied to the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of their home
• Interest in reducing their utility bills
• Being socially aware of the environment they wanted to reduce their carbon footprint
• They were interested producing their own electricity on site  
• They wanted to learn if they could control their monthly outlay for energy as they moved toward a fixed income lifestyle

Question: We are thinking about remodeling and adding some square footage.  Is that a good time to involve a Home Performance company like yours?

Answer: Regarding pre-planning for a remodeling or room addition project, the answer is “yes” that is usually a great time to have our services performed.  When considering a remodel, the remodeling contractor (when doing a modernization facelift or adding an additional room) often addresses only the visual improvements and the additional square footage asked for.  This can leave the home’s air quality, comfort and/or energy efficiency worse than it was before.  Many homes have had multiple changes and modifications over the years with some of the work done to code and some work not done to code. If the home you currently own has been renovated over the years, you likely would benefit the most from what we do which is to analyze your home for occupant safety, for energy efficiency and for comfort.

Question: Are your services only for older homes or can someone with a new or ‘newer’ home benefit from them too?

Answer: All ages of homes benefit almost equally.  Many of the improvements we make to our client’s homes utilize the latest proven building science techniques and technology.  Even today these practices aren’t taken into consideration by the vast majority of home builders.  Sadly, during the building booms over the last 25 years many homes were built quickly and were not constructed as well as they were designed. As a result many have significant construction related defects in regards to home performance and as such our products and services are an excellent investment for a home owner to fix. Even though all ages of homes usually get significant benefit from what we do homes built before about 1990 are typically the homes that experience the best return on dollars invested.

Question: We just purchased a new home (well, new to us). Should we have you do a complete home efficiency assessment?

Answer: Yes, absolutely.  You deserve to know the ‘performance’ of the home you just bought.  Better still, call us before you buy to come analyze the home you are thinking of investing in. That way you’ll know exactly what you are buying… 

Question: What about financing?

Answer: Yes, we have some excellent sources of financing that based on some special conditions such as where you live and your income level currently start at zero down/zero percent and financing  doesn’t get any better than that! Though not everyone will meet the special qualifications for the “0” down ”0” % financing many will quality for the next tier of financing which is zero down and 3% interest for up to 15 years – still an excellent program, but again, you must qualify.  Additionally, the total amount of funds available and the expiration dates of government backed programs are limited and also subject to county by county participation.  Call us to find out what is available in your area right now.

Question: Can any contractor do the work and then help me to get the sponsored rebates?

Answer: No, the programs don’t work like that.  Only approved contractors that have the appropriate certifications and are enrolled and authorized to act on behalf of the entities offering the rebates are able to perform the energy improvements that are tied to the rebates. In our case, we are a BPI certified contracting company and are an approved and qualified participating contractor in the Energy Upgrade California program.  After we have performed the work and after our efforts have been able to be audited by the program administrators, we then assist you in getting the incentive monies. Be aware though, programs can change frequently and suddenly outside of our control.

*NOTE: An incentive offered by an agency or utility is not a guarantee of a payout by the agency or utility originally offering the incentive. Usually these incentive programs have limited time periods and/or a total program dollar limit that when reached closes the program.  Currently there are significant incentive monies offered by multiple agencies depending on your county, utility provider and situation. Call us to learn about the incentives available to you.     

Question: How much can I save on my utility bill?

Answer: The answer depends on two things:

1. The actual results of the energy assessment we perform which will determine your home’s current energy efficiency
2. The actual improvements you decide to have us perform

One good indication is if you cringe opening your utility bill you are probably a good candidate for an energy assessment to analyze your potential for savings and eligibility for program rebates.  

The programs currently offered have levels of rebate dollars tied to the percentage improvements of the energy efficiency of your home, most offer incentives for improvements of between 10% and 40% from the baseline energy efficiency of the home that is determined by the energy assessment. For maximum savings, most homes require overall energy performance work as well as the replacement of older energy consuming equipment with new high efficiency equipment. Items such as air conditioners, furnaces, heat pumps, water heaters and other energy consuming appliances are the types of equipment we are referring to.

Question: I’m considering putting new windows in because I read an ad that said new windows can reduce my energy bill by up to 50%. Do you install those 50% energy saving windows?

Answer: We need to point out that you need to be cautious of individual products claiming to save you big money on your utility bills.  Yes, we help clients by installing new energy efficient windows. But, we need to state clearly that windows alone are seldom the sole solution to lowering high energy costs nor are they usually the best return on investment for our clients when spending money to lower overall energy costs. The fact is, reducing your home’s energy consumption is science.  Only through scientific evaluation of the unique qualities of your entire home can the answer to lowering your energy consumption be found. As such, without a thorough scientific home assessment & analysis no one would know what combination of performance upgrade work and products would meet your goals of energy efficiency. Without an assessment and analysis no one would be able to tell you with any accuracy where the best return on investment would be for you given the unique systems and environment that make up your home.     

From our experience there are things that we do on a regular basis that are likely to improve the comfort and efficiency of a home.  But, without first scientifically testing the home there is no way to determine:

• How much improvement (if any) these changes would make
• If they were in fact cost effective
• If the changes were safe to make
• If the change would cause inefficiencies in other areas that would out weight the benefits of the change

Now, taking into account these caveats above, the things that we have done for clients in the past that have lowered their energy usage, improved their Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and/or improved their comfort the most was work we performed and products that we installed that focused on:

• Stopping the conditioned air from leaving their homes
• Stopping unconditioned air from entering their homes
• Stopping heat in summer and cold in winter from entering their homes
• Increasing the efficiency of heating, cooling and ventilation systems

What types of things were done to accomplish this? Depending on the results of the diagnosis efforts:

• Sealing up all the cracks and unwanted air passages of the home
• Addressing underperforming insulation in the home
• Replacing outdated heating & air conditioning equipment
• Sealing or replacing ineffective heating & A/C ducting systems

These were just some of the changes that made the biggest reductions in energy consumption, made the biggest improvements in comfort, health & safety and were the best return on investment for our clients. 

*NOTE: Above all - Call a company that employs BPI Certified Professional Analysts and get a professional diagnosis. No one product is going to work for everyone and no single solution is going to work as well as a tailored system of specific solutions matched to your home’s specific needs. Remember, your home is unique. Even if it looks very similar to the house next door or the one across the street, no two are ever exactly the same.   

Question: I’m thinking I should have a complete home assessment performed. What do I need to do?

Answer: We will need to see a full year of your utility bills.  This is easier than you think. Call us and we will walk you through the process.  Beyond that we need your home to be available to our assessment team for up to three and a half hours (sometimes a little longer depending on the size and complexity of your home).